Guess who has tested positive for covid? My pregnant sister, Amber! Luckily, her symptoms are mild and she and baby Max are fine. She was so upset and worried when she found out because she's tried so hard these last 2 years to avoid covid and of course, she gets it while pregnant. She will be fine, though.
Let's see, what's new? Nick and I had not been down to see family since Christmas up until this past weekend. It had been 5 weeks since we had been down. In those 5 weeks, we've had a lot of bickering and fighting. I truly think a lot of our problems stem from simply being together too much! We live up here with no friends or family around, so we are all each other has 24/7. We have identical work schedules so we truly never have time apart. When we visited family this past weekend, Nick spent the night at his mom's house, so I had an evening and a large portion of the next day without him and I already felt so much better lol.
We have our 5 year wedding anniversary coming up in April and I was thinking about doing an engagement ring upgrade. Nick didn't have that much money back then and just bought a ring literally on a whim. He absolutely did a great job and bought one that suited me perfectly, but it's been 6 years since the engagement and I just felt like it's time for a little updating. Cue me buying TWO diamond rings! There happened to be some sales going on online, so I bought one that I really liked but then I ended up seeing another one I also really liked, so I bought it too lol. Probably not the smartest or wisest decision because I'm not made of money, but I literally never splurge on anything ever and these weren't ridiculously expensive rings...okay, they weren't super cheap either but still a deal lol.
The first ring I bought is basically identical to my sister Amber's ring. It's a princess cut double halo with diamonds on the band (hers has a split shank band whereas mine doesn't). It's an absolutely beautiful ring that dazzles and sparkles, but as I wore it around for a few days, I didn't quite feel a connection to it. Do you know what I mean? Like it's a very pretty ring that anyone would be very lucky to have but it didn't quite feel like *my* ring.
Cue the arrival of the second ring. As soon as I opened the box, I knew I had something special. What I've always loved about my original ring is that it has a heart on the side profile. The second ring also has a heart on the side profile and the four prongs holding the diamonds together at the top are itty bitty teeny hearts! I just love it. The second ring is round and I've typically always preferred a princess cut, but I love this one and don't mind the round shape at all. The second ring has the look of a large solitaire round diamond but it's actually made up of 9 smaller round diamonds. The band is tapered to make the center stone look larger and doesn't have diamonds. My original ring had the same style of band - tapered with no diamonds. Of course, I would always love a band with diamonds, but my wedding band has diamonds all the way around it, so I kind of like the contrast between the plain band and the diamond wedding band. Another thing I like is the shape of the ring (the diamond setting part when looking at it from the side). My original ring is shaped like an upside-down triangle and the second ring is too, whereas the halo ring is shaped like a triangle right side up, where it's wider at the bottom and gets smaller towards the top.
All in all, the round ring with the hearts just speaks to me. It's similar in sweet ways to my original ring (all the hearts and plain tapered band) while being a nice visual upgrade. It looks like I'm rocking an almost 2 carat round diamond. Of course, you can see the smaller diamonds together if you look close, but the effect is very nice and visually appealing. I've seen other "cluster" rings that didn't look good at all, but this one is very well done. It's sparkly and very bright white looking.
So yes, I now own 2 diamond rings (I guess 3 if you count the original). It's too late to return the first ring, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it. I could wear it on my right hand, but I kind of like having that hand free...I could just get over that and wear it since I paid for it!
I told my mom and Amber about my ring upgrade idea and they were all for it. I sent them pics of both rings and they like both and are excited to see them in person when we go down again for President's Day weekend. I was initially nervous to tell Nick about wanting to get a new ring because I don't want him to think I don't like my original ring, and he did say something along those lines when I first mentioned it. However, when I showed him the second ring (the round one with the hearts) and all the features it has that are similar to the original, he agreed that he liked it as well, which made me happy. I will always keep and treasure the original ring, but it was time for something new, a fresh start. We've definitely needed that lately! Update: Here is a pic of the ring I chose (the second ring):
2:09 p.m. - Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022